A dear friend lives in Hyderabad, joining me in Mumbai for the weekend. We opted to stay near the station in Mumbai where the trains begin to increase the likelihood of getting a seat on the suburban train to Neral. The doors remain open on the (un-air-conditioned) trains for air flow and for local passengers to hang out the doors as the trains speed along in the Indian way. Indian Railways main lines are broad guage at 5 feet 6 inches, allowing wider cars to accommodate the crowds.
Alighting at Neral, we found the narrow guage ticket window. After a small skirmish with a local woman, we got the last two seats on the toy train to the Matheran Hill Station (1). The 2-foot guage railway was built in 1907, ascending 750 meters over 13 miles in 2 hours and 40 minutes, with speeds limited to 3 miles per hour on some curves. At the Water Pipe station, we grabbed some sandwiches made of spicy potato patties stuffed into a bun sold trackside. At Matheran, we walked by the touts trying to sell us a horse ride (2), missing the man the hotel had sent to fetch me (3).
Marheran is a steep-sided flat-top hill with the hilltop a roughly rectangular shape, with a north-south alignment, about 3 miles long and 1 mile wide. We hiked to the south, enjoying views to the south and east at various vistas along the way. The views to the west (towards the setting sun and Mumbai) were more obscurred by smog. We encountered few other hikers along the way. At one Vista, there is stand selling drinks; the stall owner said he had run the stall for 30 years, currently accompanied by his dogs Rancho and Blackie, who appeared quite healthy. Overall, about 7 1/4 miles with some up and down, with lots of red dust on my shoes.
(1) Hill stations are a name given during the Raj for (relatively) cooler locations in the hills to escape the heat of the city.
(2) Matheran is distinctive in India in forbidding cars, avoiding the constant noise of honking cars. However, the government recently permitted electric tuk-tuks/rickshaws, which insist on tooting their horns incessantly and for no discernable reason.
(3) Saying my name got my attention. We were easy to spot, being the only non-Indians getting off the train. Matheran is a hill station Mumbaians go for the weekend.
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